Chose a flat fee over hourly for a contract review and it backfired

Client had a standard lease agreement for a commercial space downtown. Offered me $300 flat to review it. Thought it'd be a quick win. Took me 6 hours because of hidden clauses about subleasing and maintenance. Hourly I would have made $900 at my $150 rate. Now I tell people upfront: flat fee only works if the document is under 10 pages. Anyone else had to learn this the hard way?

3 comments

3 Comments

tessap971d ago

Yeah @kevin_williams learned that one the hard way too!

kevin_williams1d ago

Always saw flat fees as a good deal until I got burned just like this myself.

kimr911d ago

You know a buddy of mine who runs a small lawn care business? He took on a huge commercial property with a flat fee because he thought it'd be easy money. But halfway through the job, their mower broke and they had to rent one for twice what they planned. Then the client tacked on extra cleanup work that wasn't in the deal, so he basically worked for free after all the unexpected costs.